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Wapakoneta aims to knock Celina off top of WBL

Sports Editor

The Wapakoneta Redskins will look to put Celina where they are after Friday’s game — behind Kenton in the Western Buckeye League football standings, as Wapakoneta will host the Celina Bulldogs in a big WBL contest Friday at Harmon Field.

Kenton and Celina are each 2-0 in the WBL entering Friday. Wapak, meanwhile, is 1-1, with a loss to Kenton in the league opener.

The Bulldogs are off to an undefeated start this season under coach Trent Temple, who landed the position after the previous coach Jared Rolfes resigned to leave for North Carolina.

Frye commented on the level of success Celina has had so far in the season given the coach has been in place just over two months.

“Trent Temple has done a great job,” Frye said. “He’s a good friend of mine. He’s stepped in and done a great job. In a way, it might have almost been an advantage for him to get it at the last minute, because he didn’t have to think or worry about it. Sometimes you can overthink things in our business.

“They’ve continued on. It shows the quality of their seniors right now, because they didn’t deviate from the plan in place, and the quality of the assistant coaches in addition to the accolades Trent has,” he said. “Head coaches get too much credit and also too much blame. They’ve got great people around him. He’s done a great job.”

In addition to trailing the Bulldogs in the WBL standings, Wapak is also slightly behind them in the playoff chase, as Celina is ranked fourth in Division III, Region 10, while Wapak sits two spots behind in sixth, as the first release of the weekly computer ratings was on Tuesday.

Celina and Wapak are both in Division III this season after being in Division II previously.

Celina actually finished two spots ahead of Wapak last season in the computer ratings, as the two teams finished 12th and 14th, respectively, in Region 8. Both schools finished 7-3 last season.

The Bulldogs will present to Wapak another form of the spread offense Friday.

Wapak has seen spread offenses of various quantities and styles during the preseason and in every game in the regular season.

Frye said though the style of offense the Redskins defense has had to face is constant, not one opponent presents exactly the same looks, leaving it difficult to get comfortable preparing for each opposing offense.

Celina will look to unleash Braelen Bader against the Wapak defense.

Bader ran for 143 yards on 19 carries last Friday.

As the test from the Celina offense looms, the Redskins defense can keep a shutout streak alive again Friday.

Wapak has not allowed an opponent to score since 5:31 of the third quarter in its Week 2 game against Kenton.